Yale University Library
began collecting material on Southeast Asia in 1899, when Clive Day was
appointed to its faculty and a teaching program concerning Southeast Asia
was initiated. It was due to this early start that the library was
able to acquire many of the now out-of-print serials, especially from
the Dutch East Indies. Historical developments after the Second World
War provided a further impetus to the program, and in 1947 Yale
established its Southeast Asia Studies Program, the first area studies
program in the United States to embark on the study of Southeast
Asia in all disciplines. The library added special staff to work
in this area and to assure continuous acquisition of this material, now
designated as the Southeast Asia Collection.

Our
Mission

The mission of the Southeast Asia
Collection is to support teaching and research on the ten countries of
Southeast Asia -- Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines. The collection
emphasizes primarily social sciences and humanities. Countries of primary
focus are Insular Southeast Asia, i.e., Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia
and Singapore. Materials in the Southeast Asia Collection are in both
western and vernacular languages of the countries covered. The books are
integrated in the Sterling Memorial Library stacks.

Collection
Strengths

Yale has participated in the PL-480
Program for acquisitions of Indonesian materials since its inception.
The program is now called the Library of Congress Southeast Asia Cooperative
Acquisitions Program and has expanded to include Malaysia, Singapore,
and Brunei. We have agents in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.
For a number of years we received Cambodian materials from a friend of
the Library who was stationed in Phnom Penh.

Two distinctive collections that
came to the library were the Maurice Durand Collection, which is particularly
strong in literature, history, and civilization of Indo-China and the
Yeh Hua Fen Collection, which consists mainly of books on Malaysia and
Singapore. We have old serial runs from Thailand as well as Dutch materials
on the Dutch East Indies which are unique in the country.

Substantial collections on Southeast
Asia can also be found in the Social Science Library, Forestry Library,
Law Library, and Divinity Library. The Economic
Growth Center Collection, located in the Social Science Library, contains
economic surveys, statistical publications, development plans and censuses
from over 100 developing countries, including those of Southeast Asia.

A special program at Yale, the
Cambodian Genocide Program, studies the tragedy during the
Khmer Rouge revolution between 1975 and 1979, and compiles information
on the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime. This information is made accessible
to Cambodians, international scholars, and legal professionals. There
are four searchable databases: bibliographic, biographic, photographic
and geographic.

The Council
on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale promotes research and teaching on
all aspects of the cultures, politics and economies of Southeast Asia.
The Council publishes a Monograph Series covering historical, political,
economic and anthropological subjects relating to Southeast Asia, and
two additional series focusing on Vietnamese culture, literature, history
and folklore. The Council organizes periodic conferences and sponsors
a lunchtime seminar series.

A web site by Ann
Okerson, Associate Yale University Librarian for Collections Development
and Management, offers an interesting trip narrative and beautiful photos
of Cambodia taken in 1996 and 1999.